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Hi Bob (Newhart)!, Part I
February 26, 2008

Striking gold on a self-titled network sitcom is certainly easier said than done, which would make doing it twice a downright rarity. Comedy legend Bob Newhart is one of the few performers who’s doubled up on his success, first in The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1977) and then on Newhart (1982-1990). On the eve of the release of Newhart: The Complete First Season from Fox, I had the honor of speaking to the man himself about his legendary television work and the creation of the Newhart DVD.

 

VIDEO BUSINESS: Let’s start out with the stories behind why your TV shows—The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart--were cancelled. You pulled the plug on both shows, no?

BOB NEWHART: Yes I did. I was very proud of the shows and I didn’t want them to limp off. I’ve seen shows that have stayed on a year too long and it took away from the overall. I wanted to go off a year or two early rather than a year too late. CBS wanted to Newhart to go on for another year and it was a tough decision to make, particularly as you’re affecting other people’s lives.

VB: You’ve been in television for so long. Did you ever think it would get to the point where TV shows would be so analyzed and reflected upon so many years later?

NEWHART: I remember a time when the Newhart writers when they put in a joke about Gerald Ford tripping. I said to them, ‘Guys, people are going to be watching this 30 years from now and we’re going to look kind of silly if we have Ford jokes or Nixon jokes.’ I knew the show was going to have an afterlife and it’s kind of reinforcing that what we thought was really good stuff, other people thought was really good stuff.

VB: Did you enjoy working on the supplemental featurettes for Newhart?

NEWHART: Yes, very much. We all went in and did quite a bit of talking, remembering the first season and so on. Then I looked through different episodes just to refresh my mind.

VB: Was it fun getting back together with your former collaborators?

NEWHART: Absolutely. Actually, just the other day, we did a thing for television on Newhart. William Sanderson (Larry) and John Volstad (Second Daryl) were there; Tony Papenfuss had moved back to Minneapolis, so they flew him. And we had Julia (Stephanie Vanderkellen) and Peter Scolari (Michael Harris). And we all got together and had a great time and they recorded us for about an hour. I’m trying to get the footage of it because I’m sure they only used a few minutes for the show.

VB: You have such a comfortable on-screen relationship with your leading ladies, both Suzanne Pleshette on the first show and Mary Frann on Newhart.

NEWHART: When we cast Mary Frann for Joanna, I told her going in that she was going to have a really tough job because she was going to be compared to Suzanne. Suzy and I just had this wonderful chemistry that’s hard to define and even harder to find. I thought Mary did a great job of pulling it off. You can’t create chemistry—it’s either there or it’s not there. And she was so easy to relate to. She was strong in her own right while loving her husband and standing up for what she believed in.

 

Check back later in the week for the second half of my conversation with Bob Newhart.

 

Posted by Laurence Lerman on February 26, 2008 | Comments (0)